Performance Notes for The Lion s Enchantment THREE WAYS THAT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS CAN UTILIZE THIS PLAY 1. Students can read the play aloud while sitting in the classroom. Ask the readers to skip all bracketed stage directions. You may prefer to rotate your actors to give all students a chance to read the speaking parts. 2. Students can perform the play in the classroom. Clear an area that can be used as the stage. Have the audience sit on the floor in front of the stage. Students in the play can make simple costumes and/or sets as described below. When the scene change, the characters "on stage" simply walk to the back of the room where they wait until their next appearance "on stage." 3. Students can perform the play on stage. Refer to the production notes that follow. Ask the actors to enter from the back of the room and move through the audience as they approach the stage. NARRATOR Simple, nice cloths. COSTUMES MAIDEN A plain light colored shirt with skirt or plain light colored dress. If you want to make the clothes look worn and worked in, you can r rub some dirt on them, or use brown paint. 1
FARMER A plaid or solid colored button-up shirt and jeans or overalls. Brown or black shoes. A straw hat is optional. COWS/PIGS They can wear a white t-shirt and white pants as their base. As COWS, they can wear a black jacket with white spots and black hat. Spots can be cut from any white fabric and either sewn or hot glued onto jacket. As PIGS they can wear a pink jacket and pink hat. Another option is to wear actual cow and pig costumes. LION Yellow pants, a yellow hooded sweatshirt, and an orange mane. You can create the main by attaching orange yarn, or strips of orange felt, to the hood of the sweatshirt. You can sew or hot-glue the mane pieces on. Optional: You can make a tail by cutting a strip of yellow fabric, folding it over itself, sewing along the open edged to create a tube, then stuffing the tube with cotton pillow-stuffing. There are a lot of great resources online with step-by-step instructions. Another option is to use an actual lion costume. Optional: For the LION S wound, you can use red face paint or a red eyebrow pencil to draw a scratch-type line across the actor s forehead. PRINCE Black pants, a white button-up shirt, and a nice buttoned vest or jacket. Note: In Scene 2, Scene 3, and Scene 9 the LION becomes the PRINCE. The switch happens during the transitions from Underground House- one character will crawl into the hole and exit, and the other character will enter back through the hole. See Other Staging Notes for the transition to/from Underground House through the hole. PRINCESS A nice brightly-colored dress. In Scenes 4 and 6 her hair should look as if it has been done up nicely by the MAIDEN. If the actor has longer hair, it can be put up or curled. If the actor has shorter hair, she can wear nice barrettes and/or a fancy headscarf. Another option is to have the actress wear a wig. ATTENDANTS Plain light colored button up shirts and brown or black pants with long white socks. You can roll up the pant cuffs to create the look of knickers. Black shoes and black vests. 2
GIANT A long sleeved tan shirt with a brown vest. Dark brown or black pants, a belt, to be worn over the vest, and black or brown boots or shoes. Optional: Fake beard and moustache. KING A white button-up shirt, black pants, black shoes, a crown, and a red king s robe. You can also make a robe or half-robe using red fabric over the shoulders, gathering at the collar, and clipping it together with a gold broach/pin. QUEEN A long bright-colored dress and a crown. A queen s robe, if possible. If not, then you can drape some nice red or gold fabric around the shoulders, like a shawl. PROPS Scene 1 Bag for MAIDEN. It can be a satchel with a shoulder strap or something around her waist. This is where she can keep the handkerchief, the healing herbs, the scarf, and her brush. Big thorn for LION S paw- this can be made cardboard/paper in cone shape and the LION can carry it to give the illusion that it s stuck. Handkerchief for PRINCESS to wrap the LION S paw with. Scene 2 Healing herbs (in MAIDEN S bag). This can just be a small vile or jar. Long scarf for MAIDEN to wrap around LION S head. Scene 3 Books, to be set on the table. Bowls, spoons, forks, cups, to be set on the table. Food- this can be real or fake. Scene 4 A brush (in MAIDEN S bag). 3
A mirror- can be real or cardboard with tin foil glued on. A pair of scissors (pretend!) for MAIDEN to cut a lock of PRINCESS S hair. These can be plastic or made from cardboard, since they don t actually have to cut anything. Lock of PRINCESS S hair for MAIDEN to cut. This can be a piece of yarn that is roughly the same color as PRINCESS S hair. You can clip it into the back of her head, and MAIDEN can unclip it when it s time to cut it. Or, MAIDEN can keep the piece of yarn in her bag and pull it out with her brush so that it s in her hand when she cuts. Scene 5 A cloak, for PRINCESS to give to GIANT. You can use a real cloak or make one out of any simple fabric. To make a cloak, drape the fabric over the GIANT S head and gather the fabric together around the collar. This creates a hood. Mark the place where the fabric comes together in the front, and attach Velcro to both sides, so the cloak can be closed at the front. Note: This first cloak is small and does not fit the GIANT. Note: The color of the cloak should match the color of the PRINCESS S hair color. Scene 6 A brush for PRINCESS to use, same as Scene 3. Large barrette for MAIDEN to use in PRINCESS S hair. Scissors for MAIDEN to clip PRINCESS S hair with. (Same as before) Another lock of PRINCESS S hair for MAIDEN to cut. This can be another piece of yarn that is roughly the same color as PRINCESS S hair. It can be brought on and clipped the same way as before. Scene 7 A second cloak for PRINCESS to give to GIANT. This one is made the same way the first, smaller cloak was made. Note: This one is bigger and fits the GIANT. Note: The color of the cloak should match the color of the PRINCESS S hair color. A long piece of flowing blue fabric to represent the pond the LION is thrown into and PRINCE emerges from. See Other Staging Notes for how to accomplish this. 4
SETS The stage is divided into two sections- The Meadow, on one side, and The Palace, on the other side. If you want to paint a backdrop, it can both locations. There are two other location in the play, which will come on as pop-up locations- The Underground House and the Giant s Door. Scene 1 The Meadow. If you have a backdrop, this part can show grass, hills, and trees. There is a free-standing climbing tree and a large free standing rock on stage. The tree sits in the center of the stage, and the large rock sits very close to offstage. To make the large rock: This can be cut out of cardboard and painted gray. It should be flat and freestanding, and at least 3 ft tall. You can make a triangular brace from cardboard or tie the rock to a milk crate, to hold it up. Make two handles out of cardboard for the back. It should be light and easy to slide. See image for an example: Note: The rock should sit close to offstage, in order to make the entrances/exits to/from the underground house easier. (See Other Staging Notes for ideas on moving the rock and entrances/exits to/from the underground house.) 5
To make the freestanding climbing tree: You can make this from cardboard, cutting out a tree with a short stump and one wide space created in the branches, for MAIDEN to stand between. Make a triangular brace out of cardboard and attach it to the back of the tree, in the center. Cover a stepstool in brown paper, to match the color of the tree. The step stool sits behind the cardboard tree, a little off center. The step stool can also help to brace the tree, along with the cardboard brace, and you can even tie the tree to the stepstool. When MAIDEN climbs the tree, she climbs up the stepstool and looks out from between the branches, giving the illusion that she is in the tree. See images: Scene 2 The Meadow, the next day. Same as in Scene 1. Scene 3 The Prince s underground home. At the top of the Scene, before MAIDEN enters, HANDS can bring on a table and a chair. On the table are cups, bowls, utensils, and some food. Note: To make this transition easier, you can use a rolling cart instead of a table. Cover the cart in a tablecloth. On the cart you can place the books, the 6
dishes, the utensils, and the food. You can secure some of the objects to the cart or to the tablecloth using glue or tape. Secure any cups, bowls or utensils that the MAIDEN will not pick up. You can secure the bowls or plates of food, except for a few loose pieces that the MAIDEN will eat. (See Other Staging Notes for more ideas on this transition.) Scene 4 The Palace. If you have a backdrop, it can show the inside walls of a palace, with a large window and perhaps a few tapestries. On stage, there is a chair for the PRINCESS. This can be a regular chair covered in some nice fabric. Scene 5 The Giant s Door. This is a pop-up scene that happens at the front of the stage, in front of the large rock. For the door, you can use cardboard. Start with a big rectangular piece. With a marker, draw a door within the large piece. With a box cutter, trace the marker, leaving one side of the door uncut. This will act as the hinge. You can paint the door brown and draw a sign on the front that says, GO AWAY or something to that affect. You can paint the area around the door gray, or make bricks using sponges. You can make two triangular cardboard braces to make the door free-standing, or have two STAGE HANDS hold the door in place. It should stand somewhere in front of the rock. See images for example: 7
Scene 6 The Palace, same as Scene 4. Scene 7 The Giant s door, same as Scene 5. Scene 8 The Meadow, same as Scenes 1 & 2. Scene 9 The Pond. This is a pop-up scene. Two STAGE HANDS bring on a long strip of wrinkly fabric. One STAGE HAND stands with their end right by offstage, and the other STAGE HAND stands about center stage. They hold the fabric up about waist-high. This represents the pond, into which MAIDEN will throw the LION. See Other Staging Notes for execution of this action. Scene 10 The Palace, same as Scenes 4 & 6. 8
OTHER STAGING NOTES Scene 2 & Scene 3 Moving the Rock and climbing down into the hole The rock should be set up close to offstage. When the LION, PRINCE, or MAIDEN go to enter the Underground House, they can push it a foot or so forward, towards the audience. Once they move the rock, they can step back to where the rock was, and crouch down, pretending to crawl down. They can duck completely behind the rock, pull the rock back to where it was, and crawl offstage. See images: 9
Note: In Scene 2, PRINCE can yawn and say his line as he is crawling down, before ducking offstage. Note: At the end of Scene 2, after MAIDEN crawls down into the hole, that s when STAGE HANDS can bring on the Underground House set. Coming back up through the hole The reverse of the above. LION, PRINCE, or MAIDEN, when they are entering, can crawl onstage, behind the rock, push it forward, and then step up, as if coming up from underneath. They can then push the rock back. Scene 9 Throwing LION into the pond/transition from LION to PRINCE two STAGE HANDS hold the piece of wrinkly fabric waist high. They can wave the fabric back a forth a little to give the effect of water. MAIDEN and LION walk to the edge of the fabric, on the center stage side. 10
MAIDEN pretends to grab the LION and throw him into the pond. In reality, the LION throws himself into the pond- it just looks like the MAIDEN is doing it. LION jumps forward, going behind the blue fabric. LION waves his arms back and forth, and then ducks down behind fabric. LION crawls offstage behind the fabric. PRINCE can then crawl onstage and pop up behind the fabric, and swims back to land, at center stage. See image for example: 11